The Optus $35 My Plan Doesn't Make Much Sense

Optus has added a budget-priced $35 option to its range of My Plan postpaid plans. While everyone’s needs for mobile plans are different, we can’t get too excited by this one.

The $35 plan includes unlimited texting, 200 call minutes to Australian numbers and 200MB of data. You have to sign up to a 24-month contract, and you’ll pay additional handset charges for some phones. (The plan has the same entitlements as the existing SIM-only $25 plan, though that is available month-to-month.) Pay an additional $5 and your data is expanded from 200MB to 500MB.

On the Optus network, you can do much better for your money. For $40, Amaysim gives you unlimited calls and texts and 4GB of data. That doesn’t include 4G, but if download speed matters to you, why on earth do you want to be limited to 200MB? And if that mattered, you can sign up to Live Connected; the Rapid M plan cost $19.90, includes 1.5GB of data and allows 302 2-minute calls (compared to 100 on Optus).

I'm with Yatango now (also Optus) and I am extremely happy with it. I can get the exact plan I want and change it month-to-month to suit my needs. I can even, if I chose, put everything on a "pay as you go" setup where I could potentially pay $0 for that month if I didn't use the phone. Yatango isn't going to be good value for all users, possibly not most users, but for me it's the perfect fit.